April 2018 Report

In agriculture a common problem is the unsafe handling of pesticides, with young people being pushed into using toxic materials. And unfortunately, they often feel they cannot say no even if they feel they are being asked to do something dangerous. Young workers are also more likely to be lacking in education, skills and training and might not be able to recognise warnings and instructions.

As access to schools has widened in many parts of the world, child labour numbers have fallen by 90 million between 2000 and 2016, yet every day there are 37 million teenagers going to work in hazardous conditions.

In India, 4,100 rescued child labourers have been registered with the child labour tracking system (CLTS), an innovative web-based system to register rescued child labourers and track their re-integration into the mainstream that was launched in 2016.

"Even if children are rescued from working as child labour, there is no guarantee that they would not be forced to work." So it is important to have systems in place to track their progress and provide tailored rehabilitation.

Human traffickers across India are convincing impoverished parents to send their children to work over the holidays in factories and farms as schools break for summer; and many of those don't return to school once they have started working. "They track children from poor families and convince parents that it is a waste of time to allow their children to play or stay home when they can earn instead."

There are an estimated 10.1 million workers between the ages of 5 and 14 in India, according to the ILO, with more than 50% on farms and over a quarter are in the manufacturing sector embroidering clothes, weaving carpets, making matchsticks and bangles.